Related Programs

CADRE

CADRE (Capacity for Applied and Developmental Research and Evaluation in Health Services and Nursing) is a partnership between the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to develop increased capacity in applied health services and health policy research. CADRE has identified that there is not only a need for more health services and policy researchers in Canada, but also for an increased orientation toward the application and use of research by decision-makers.

The WRTC is one of four regional training centres funded by CHSRF. The other centres are the Ontario Training Centre (OTC), the Atlantic Regional Training Centre (ARTC), and the Centre FERASI

The training centres are designed to increase the number of well-qualified applied health services and nursing researchers at the master’s and PhD level and are intended to complement the infrastructure established through the programs of the CHSRF/CIHR Chairs. By grouping various post-secondary institutions, departments, faculties and decision-makers, the centres have established applied research training programs that are truly interdisciplinary.

An overview of the regional training centres may be found in a Special Issue of HealthCare Policy, published in May 2008.

EXTRA

The Executive Training for Research Application (EXTRA) program is a two-year fellowship designed to train senior health systems managers in leading and managing change, and making effective use of research-based evidence. EXTRA fellows carry out an “Intervention Project” (IP) that addresses a specific or general organizational problem. The IP is designed to directly meet a high priority need on behalf of the EXTRA fellow’s organization.

The Western Regional Mentoring Centre (RMC) is located in the WRTC: it oversees the mentoring relationship between the EXTRA fellow and the two mentors that assist with the fellow’s IP. Each fellow has an academic mentor to ensure the intellectual integrity of the project, and to help with problem definition, research methodology, and report writing. The fellow also has a decision-maker mentor: this mentor assists with organizational, political, and technical issues.